The Opinions Committee (the “Committee”) of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of California (the “California State Bar Business Law Section”) has prepared and issued this sample opinion (the “Venture Opinion”)1 in consultation with the Corporations Committee (the “Corporations Committee”) of the California State Bar Business Law Section, and with the approval of the Executive Committee of the California State Bar Business Law Section. The editors and contributors to the Venture Opinion are the following:
Reporter:
Richard N. Frasch
Other Drafting Committee Members:
Twila L. Foster
Jerome A. Grossman
Timothy G. Hoxie
Douglas F. Landrum
Ann Yvonne Walker
Contributors Outside The Committee:
Arthur N. Field
Donald W. Glazer
Jerome E. Hyman
Stanley Keller
Michael J. Kendall
James J. Rosenhauer
Suzanne Weakley Corporations Committee Representatives:
Julia K. Cowles
Jeffrey T. Drake
Christina F. Pearson
2013–2014 Opinions Committee
Steering Committee:
Richard N. Frasch, Co-Chair
Timothy G. Hoxie, Co-Chair
James F. Fotenos, Vice Chair
Kenneth J. Carl, Secretary
Ethan J. Falk
Jerome A. Grossman
Douglas F. Landrum
Carol K. Lucas
John B. Power
Peter S. Szurley
Ann Yvonne Walker
Steven O. Weise
Other Members:
Dennis B. Arnold
John Babala
Kenneth J. Baronsky
Mark A. Bonenfant
Thomas G. Brockington
Peter H. Carson
James Cochran
Nelson D. Crandall
Charles L. Crouch, III
Henry D. Evans, Jr.
Twila L. Foster
Norman Futami
Nora Gibson
Robert J. Gloistein
Thomas Klaus Gump
Meredith S. Jackson
John M. Jameson
David Johnson
Moshe J. Kupietzky
F. Daniel Leventhal
Kenneth Linhares
Richard Luther
Sean Monroe Theresa G. Moran
Peter S. Muñoz
Eustace A. Olliff
Sarah P. Payne
Susan Cooper Philpot
David M. Pike
Bradley J. Rock
Steven E. Sherman
Richard Smith
Brooks Stough
Jeffrey E. Sultan
Gail Suniga
Robert Thompson
Jack D. Welch, III
Benzion J. Westreich
Nancy H. Wojtas
INTRODUCTION
In 2009, the Opinions Committee of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of California published a commentary on customary practice with respect to third-party legal opinions given in venture capital financing transactions (the “2009 Venture Capital Report”).2 This sample opinion (the “Venture Opinion”), along with the accompanying footnotes, augments the 2009 Venture Capital Report by providing an illustration of what an opinion letter given in a venture capital financing transaction might look like.
The Venture Opinion builds upon several prior exemplars: the Committee’s …
